To help 2G customers who have to buy a new phone to upgrade to 4G, the company had earlier introduced 4G feature phones, to make it affordable for them to make the switch.
Vi partners SpaceX-rival AST SpaceMobile for satcom service on smartphones
Horrors of the mind and modern technology rock the OTT this week.
Mistry may work for some, but also raises the question about mental illness being treated as a means of amusement for audiences, notes Deepa Gahlot.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said Jio and Google have jointly developed a power-packed and affordable smartphone 'JioPhone Next', which will be available in the market from September 10. Ambani promised that JioPhone Next will be the most affordable smartphone not just in India but globally. Speaking at RIL's annual general meeting, Ambani asserted that an ultra-affordable 4G smartphone is essential to make India '2G-mukt' (free of 2G).
From January 1, all these iPhone users will get the Rs 1,499 plan completely free for 1 year, which equals value worth Rs 18,000
Jio's adjusted gross revenue share went up by 7 percentage points in Q2FY18-19 over the previous quarter in the circles of the C category.
Jio is planning to win over 350 million 2G feature phone users by launching a smartphone at a fraction of the current cost.
Sale of Apple's iPhone 15 is estimated to have registered a 100 per cent growth compared to that of the iPhone 14 series on the first day with high demand for made-in-India iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus models, according to industry sources. Apple has for the first time made available the 'made-in-India' iPhone on the same day it started selling the devices in the country and other parts of the globe. "Till evening, 6 pm IST, the sales of iPhone 15 series have recorded over 100 per cent growth on Day 1 compared to the sale of iPhone 14.
Having missed most of the first three industrial revolutions, India has its chance to lead the fourth industrial revolution through a convergence of its IT prowess, ultra-high-speed internet connectivity and affordable smart devices, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday. The richest Indian, who heads the nation's most valuable company Reliance Industries, said his group's telecom and digital unit Jio was conceived to provide the key ingredients needed to lead the fourth industrial revolution.
Analysts say that Jio's substantial slowing down in net additions is possibly because the company has dramatically reduced its bundled 4G feature phone offering, which contributed an average 30-40 per cent of its net additions.
Reliance Jio may not ask for a premium for its 5G services in the initial stages of the launch, according to sources in the company. The company will roll out 5G commercial services in four cities -Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata - around Diwali this month and slowly ramp up the processes for other cities, too. A senior executive, when asked whether Jio will charge higher tariffs for 5G against 4G, said: "In the initial stages, customers have to adopt 5G, then they will have to find value in the service, and then one can look at monetisation."
The development marks a watershed moment in India's telecom history since fixed-line or landline connections formed the final segment where a State-owned operator was in the top spot.
Your weekly round-up of the top tech news.
The 2016 upstart, called Jio, dislodged rivals and has emerged as the nation's No. 4 carrier by offering call services free for life and data transmission at dirt cheap rates.
Jio Platforms is expected to use its 388 million mobile phone subscribers as the cornerstone of an e-commerce and digital services business to rival Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart.
After continuously bleeding subscribers for nearly two years, state-owned telecom services provider BSNL added 2.9 million users in July when its private-sector rivals raised tariffs by nearly 20 per cent. With BSNL keeping tariffs unchanged, many subscribers using entry-level plans shifted from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), said analysts.
Many states are realising that hosting mega events puts the spotlight on them and raises their profile.
Telecom service providers and the Maha Kumbh Mela administration are on their toes to ensure smooth connectivity at the grand event set to witness record teledensity.
Measures reportedly being mulled by the government to ease telecom industry's stress and fundraising may give Vodafone Idea the much-needed breather, but structural issue undermining the sector can be fixed only with "sizable" tariff hike for 4G prepaid customers, according to a note by Edelweiss. It further observed that as Voda Idea's large liabilities are falling due, and given the impending launch of JioPhone Next (whose rollout timeline has now been pushed to before Diwali), "the sooner the government measures as well as tariff hikes are rolled out, the better it is". It is pertinent to mention here that the telecom sector has been keenly watching out for the relief package, which could include redefinition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) to exclude non-telecom items, cut in levies such as Spectrum Usage Charges and easier terms and conditions for surrendering radiowaves to the government.
Zomato is at 5, Swiggy at 9, Blinkit at 10.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's four-year-old telecom venture Reliance Jio has been ranked the fifth strongest brand globally behind the likes of Ferrari and Coca-Cola. The Brand Finance's Global 500 ranking of the strongest brands globally, which determined the relative strength of brands, is topped by WeChat, according to its annual report on most valuable and strongest global brands.
Ordering groceries, vegetables and daily essentials is just a WhatsApp away as billionaire Mukesh Ambani's e-commerce platform JioMart taps into the popular messaging app to scale up online business in its fight for dominance in the giant Indian retail market with Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Ambani's twin children, Akash and Isha gave a preview of the ordering at Meta's second edition of the Fuel for India event on Wednesday. A new 'tap and chat' option allows users to order groceries through WhatsApp.
Surajeet Das Gupta explains why Mukesh Ambani's target is by no means impossible.
It is said money doesn't buy happiness, and the show proves it -- there is romance, heartbreak, affairs and murder. A place that should be heavenly quickly turns into a hell of misery, observes Deepa Gahlot.
'You have to hand it to Mukesh for sheer daring.' 'Who else in India would have sunk a stupendous $30 billion in a business that was yet to get a single customer?' 'With that, the older of the Ambani siblings has shown that he is in a class of his own,' says T N Ninan.
'There is no doubt at all that Jio's disruption of the mobile broadband market was a turning point for India's digital economy.'
The latest telecom war kicked off after some pictures surfaced, showing Airtel banners among agitating farmers. According to the Jio camp, it was a giveaway that farmers were being enticed to port their phone numbers.
The users of 5G-enabled Apple iPhones will be able to try 5G telecom services - wherever available publicly in the country - from next week, both on standalone (Reliance Jio) and non-standalone networks (Bharti Airtel). Airtel and Jio customers who download the iOS 16 Beta software update as part of its 'Apple Beta Software Program' can try the service and send their feedback to the company. The final updated software will become available sometime in December.
Bring out the popcorn, Sukanya Verma promises that there's *tons* to catch up on OTT this week.
While most others have not been able to replicate the WeChat model successfully, experts expect Jio to be able to score on its 300 million plus new mobile phone users.
The statement came a day after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd announced a hike in call and data charges from next month.
The fixed line broadband will offer "ultra high-definition entertainment on large screen TVs, multi-party video conferencing from your living room, voice-activated virtual assistants, virtual reality gaming, digital shopping, immersive experiences," Ambani said.
At Rs 2,999, LYF Flame is one of the most affordable VoLTE smartphone in the market now.
While only 78.15 per cent of Jio's total subscriber base was active, Airtel boasts of 98.14 per cent active customers.
Qualcomm launched its new affordable, India-designed chipset, the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, on Tuesday. This chipset will enable mobile device makers to sell 5G smartphones operating on a standalone (SA) network for Rs 8,300 or less.
The freebies are now over, but Jio will need to notch up subscriber numbers and margins to prove its sceptics wrong.
With the interconnect usage charges (IUC) regime for domestic voice calls coming to an end, Reliance Jio on Thursday said that all calls from its network to other networks anywhere in India will be free from January 1, 2021. As per the telecom regulator's directions, 'Bill and Keep' regime is being implemented in the country from January 1, 2021, thereby ending IUC charges for all domestic voice calls, it said in a statement.
The problem is simple: None of the incumbent players, including Vodafone Idea, has a similar offer to challenge Jio and ensure that its 2G customers do not migrate.
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